Didn’t get to Stella yesterday, as I fell down the jigsaw puzzle hole.
I’ll take a better picture when I’m done. These grids consisting of book covers come together fairly quickly and they’re fun. In this case, the plus is learning about new-to-me titles and a reminder that I have The Phantom Tollbooth in my TBR pile and I should get on it.
After I finish Winter Solstice, of course, which I allowed myself to read first thing this morning with a cup of hot coffee. That’s what I used to do every day, before personal computers and smart phones and social media. I’d make a cup of coffee, sit down in my favorite chair, and read for an hour or two. I’m starting to go back to that. I do my best reading in the morning before the rest of the day and its chores and responsibilities kicks in.
We made up another grocery list and Don will pick up the order tomorrow. Exciting, right?
Today is beautifully sunny, the first sunny day since the storm rolled in on Monday. We are going to enjoy it while we can because tomorrow brings rain and some snow. Sunlight reflecting off masses of white snow is like no other light. Even now, at 10 in the morning, the house is filled with light.
As the sun came up this morning.
I’m really staying away from the news, taking a brief amount of time to check in sometime during the afternoon. That’s it. I need peace. Don needs peace. Which brings to mind what I love about jigsaw puzzles – if I’m feeling at all anxious, I can sit down with the puzzle, lose myself in it, and the anxiety is gone. A blessing.
Stay safe.
Happy Thursday.
pretty photos. sweet puzzle. beautiful snow, winter-bare trees and light. glad you can enjoy them along with lots of books and coffee. stella will patiently wait!
good luck on the grocery run. hope the roads are clear and people wear masks.
i have started a new nighttime routine of having a cup of hot chocolate before bedtime. despite having caffeine, it makes me sleepy, warms me and is very soothing, comforting.
like my boss and co-workers, i am home now (and hopefully all day), thanks to ice, snow and wind. i don’t wish hardship and rough weather on anyone, but i am glad to be home. :)
might have an early hot chocolate and take a nap soon or just lay down and think about the idea i just got two days ago for a children’s picture book (or work on the others in progress).
happy thursday and stay safe!
kathy in iowa
Since we’re picking up groceries and an employee loads them in our trunk, masks aren’t an issue, thankfully.
Glad you’re home, safe from bad weather. You know I love hot chocolate! Glad you’re enjoying a nighttime cup.
Stay safe, Kathy.
I can see why that puzzle would come together quickly but it sure looks like great fun and so colorful! and good book suggestions as a plus!!
We had that beautiful sun yesterday but today it is cloudy and rain turning to winter mix will start this afternoon… then really cold for the weekend. Coming your way I am sure!
Have a cozy day of reading and puzzles!
We’re getting that rain, and some snow, tomorrow. Looks like we’re a day behind you.
Stay safe, Ellen!
Finally after several grey days we have sunshine. Thought of you when I saw this jigsaw puzzle knowing that you live in New York and that you read.
https://www.puzzlewarehouse.com/NY-Public-Library-aa1067.html.
Hope you have a good day.
Thanks for the link Trina! I’ll check it out.
Stay safe!
Beautiful sunrise. Gracious, that snow looks thick and deep! We had a gorgeous sunSET last night, taxi-cab yellow and magenta with orange-juice orange and tiny patches of robin’s egg blue; then, as it faded, pale pinks with gray. Isn’t it wonderful to have these ‘natural wonders’ in our world. “Sunlight reflecting off masses of white snow is like no other light.” I wish I could know what that is, of which you speak Claudia! Conversely, at the beach yesterday, the sunlight on the ocean wasn’t so much like twinkling diamonds, rather bouncing lights almost like a strobe over a disco dance floor, and the water was a pale green-blue (soft color) at midday.
I’ve just read about this ‘cold snap’ which seems to be targeted more for the Midwest than Northeast, and I really don’t understand it all very much, but they refer to something called a ‘flash freeze’ and how it relates to the polar vortex for bitter cold. All I can think of is, “BRRRR”!
We’re doing a grocery pickup today, too. Just fed up with pantry food; very much needing ‘fresh’. Curbside pickup only, though (I’m worried about those Covid variants/mutations and where they’re lurking here in SoCalif).
We’re getting much colder temps next week, so maybe we’re impacted by the cold snap. Who knows? It’s winter. That’s the way it is.
Stay safe, Vicki. Enjoy your fresh food!
Yep, I just worked hard to find places (again) to put everything in a small house with now only one refrigerator since we lost the second/older one in the big power outtage recently ‘suffered’ in the major Santa Ana wind event here in SoCalif. We weren’t going to buy more groceries til mid-month (to partially replace what went bad when we had no electricity; budget allowance, so to speak), but started feeling a bit of ‘urgency’ due to the usual, like if it’s a better time than later to stock up due to what’s happening with the virus in our area; but also, as said, when there needs to be some ‘fresh’ along with the shelf-stable storage.
But I felt gratitude when often I search within myself to remember to BE grateful over these long months (I can go into the ‘pity party’ quite easily, nothing of which to be proud) because of the fact that we were able to indeed afford to buy groceries in the first place, and it certainly feels reassuring to have, once again, a full ‘larder’ in these difficult times. It’s always been like that since the start of the pandemic; like, okay, we’ve got food, we can breathe now. We’re safe at home with what we need. Breathe.
Also, the last couple of ‘weather’ days (in my beloved but so flawed SoCalif) have been spectacularly scenic and clear and pleasantly-cool and nice; sunny (the hills, mountains and bare land [even the vacant lots!] are greening up; bushes and trees are beginning, even this early, to blossom; we’re starting plans for our annual vegetable garden); thus, how NOT to be grateful (but rather, VERY grateful) when knowing others are probably in their own power outtages due to outrageously-severe blizzards, and God knows if they can afford to even keep warm in their houses if they’re victims of job loss, etc.
Wanted to say something about ‘the news’ (on TV, in print, the web, etc.) because I’m all over the place of keeping informed vs being oversaturated. I feel last night’s Brian Williams’ show on MSNBC/TV was one of his best; very interesting guests, especially one who is the retiring executive editor at The Washington Post. This man said that there are over 1000 reporters in the newsroom there and spoke of their dedication at the paper; of how in these times of so many untruths, they’ve had to get more and more ‘direct’ in reporting the news to indeed shine a light over the dark corners (and hold government accountable; they’re all right there in DC after all), because “Democracy dies in darkness.”
That’s a phrase, he said, which comes from, gosh let me get this right, the Watergate days; a Watergate judge. When Jeff Bezos bought the WP some few years back, he’d decided the newspaper needed a motto (like a lot of other newspapers). So he and the WP team adapted that key quote for their own. I just felt, after this concise dialog with the very interesting editor, a man whose name now escapes me (well, I just looked him up; Martin Baron; I’ve been so clueless of any of these developments at the WP), of how the media, for as much as it most often gets things right (the legit media) although sometimes it’s wrong, is just critical for keeping us on the straight and narrow. Another thing of which to be thankful and grateful: A FREE PRESS. I’m glad I don’t live in a country which censors the press.
(Maybe the above about the WP is ‘old news’ to someone else; but, again, I didn’t know about any of this because I don’t subscribe to the paper; only, from time to time, will read a good article here and there that’s posted on the home page or something.)
So, yeah, my gratitude list today is a longer one. I snuck in a cup of coffee midday (the real stuff, not decaf; my bad, since it’s a no-no for my health issues; I SO MUCH MISS MY COFFEE) which always makes me a more positive person!
Yes, I’m familiar with the Editor of the Washington Post. I believe he was previously a part of the team at the Boston Globe, the team that broke the story about priests/pedophilia that was made into a movie – Spotlight. The Post is wonderful, unfortunately, they have a paywall, so I can’t always read their stories.
The photos are gorgeous, so pretty. I’m another one who can lose whole chunks of time doing a jigsaw, it keeps the hands and mind busy. Enjoy your day.
It does, indeed. Thank goodness for puzzles!
Stay safe, Fiona.
You raced through that one and it’s such fun! Love all the titles. And I especially love that wonderful view you see each day. Even though I’m no real snow fan, I do love how it looks, especially with bare branches, deep shadows and blue skies. Lovely.
Me too. I would be quite happy with snow falling on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and then no more. But I have to say that it’s beautiful out there.
Stay safe, Jeanie.
I enjoyed recognising many childhood favourites in this puzzle. My parents were readers and all four of us siblings have kept the love for books. My daughter read from the final few paragraphs of the “Winnie the Pooh” books at her grandmother’s funeral: that’s how important books were to all of us when we were children! Reading aloud forms such an important memory for me.
And we are expecting 100 kilometre an hour (roughly 60mph) winds and up to 100 mmm (around 4″) rain today: could get exciting!
Oh no! Very strong winds!
Yes, my mom read aloud to us and I, in turn, read aloud to my little sisters and nieces and nephews. I still read aloud to Don at times.
Stay safe, Denise!
Love the puzzle
I mask when I pick up groceries as boy comes near for TIP
Prayers
We are told not to give them tips. The tip is included in the surcharge.
But we always have masks with us. Never leave the house without one.
Stay safe, Brenda.
I had some lab work done yesterday and my husband watched the flow of foot traffic while he waited in the car. The lab ‘monitor’ at the lab entrance turned away two people after taking their temps. Turned two other people away who refused to put on a mask (I mean, c’mon, by now … ??? … you’re still not wearing a mask, you idiots!); didn’t let them in the door (thank you, for the rest of us). I was shocked that my very-nice and highly-organized/efficient lab technician said she hadn’t yet gotten her vaccine. (She’d said it was up to her to go find out where to get a shot, on her own time, and it sounded like she had more than one part-time job, like back-to-back work obligations; so, I didn’t probe, but a scheduling problem? [I’d have tried to solve that by now!]) Anybody with whom I’ve spoken to of late (in a medical setting) have already received not just their first shot, but also their second shot.
(I had an ultrasound technician tell me this week that despite her completed regimen of the two shots of vaccine, she has a VERY healthy respect for Covid because she also works in a hospital and has seen the Covid sufferers up close and personal, such that she still takes [and she said this has never changed; she has never faltered] every precaution necessary at work and at home [she had on a double mask AND a face shield].) In SoCalif where I am, my particularly county, those with the medical/healthcare ‘industry’ went first (should have gone first!) along with other first-responders and the over-75ers. And the rest of us? We wait. And wait and wait and wait.
(That is NOT my typo of ‘particularly county’, of course meant to say, as written, because I proofed before sending, ‘particular county’; this auto-correct has to be one of the more annoying ‘computer issues’ and we’ve tried every way to remove the feature because it’s always WRONG when the human is RIGHT. Grrrr …)
xo
Yes, we wait. Both Don and I have said that we’ll probably be wearing masks long after we’ve been vaccinated.
That does look like a fun puzzle! And your picture is lovely. We are getting dumped on right now. The snow is really coming down quite heavily. We had some ice this morning. Nice…. supposed to get 3-6 with 35 mph winds to blow it into drifts overnight. Then the brutal cold will hit. Good times. Yep, it is winter. Another weekend for lots of reading, which doesn’t bother me at all!
Hope you enjoy the sunshine today. We had sun the past 2 days, and that really makes a difference in how one feels, doesn’t it? Have a great rest of your day, and take care.
We’re getting that cold next week. Never gets out of the twenties during the day and in the single digits at night.
Stay safe, Chris.
Dear Claudia, The Phantom Tollbooth is one of my all time favorite books – a twentieth century Alice in Wonderland. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
I can’t wait to read it, Leslie.
Stay safe!
What a fun puzzle. Before Covid I volunteered at a children’s library filing books away one morning a week. This reminds me of that. Seeing what the kids are into was very enlightening. I love The Island of the Blue Dolphin, especially because I grew up in Santa Barbara Ca and the island was just off shore. I just finished a puzzle that had a curvy border. It was impossible to start from the edge and work in. We had to do the middle and work out. Very mind bending. Enjoy the sun 🌞
That would be a challenge!
Stay safe, Janet!
You are a whiz with puzzles! I’ve done some playing with them on jigsaw planet, but our computer mouse is slow to respond and I end up having to click and drag several times for just one piece. Sometimes it seems that nothing in this old house works, or works very well, including me. Also avoiding news–it still seeps in but it no longer jacks up my BP as it did every day for the last 5 years. Now maybe I can get a few things in order around here. That might help things work, too! Stay safe.
Exactly. I get frustrated but I’m still relatively calm. Because he’s gone.
Stay safe, Nora!